Hot on the heels of getting a massive payout from Kazaa, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has turned its focus on another big file-sharing network, LimeWire.

On Friday, Universal Music, Sony BMG, EMI Group Plc, and Warner Music Group Corp. sued LimeWire. The record companies are asking for US$150,000 for every song LimeWire “willingly infringed.” The lawsuit is backed up by the U.S. Supreme Court deciding last year that action could be taken against companies that encouraged copyright infringement.

The RIAA said the action needed to be taken, because several attempts to contact LimeWire's management regarding turning its operation into a legitimate and legal business have been met with “insufficient interest.”

MATTHEW'S OPINION
After the outcome of the Kazaa action, I fully expect LimeWire to end up in the same predicament; the music publishers have the upper hand now, especially since the Supreme Court stepped in.

So what will happen to LimeWire? It is likely the file-sharing will dry up for the service if the action by the music publishers is successful. If it can pay the fines and survive, then it could potentially turn into a Napster, offering a legal music service or become a technology company and sell its P2P tech. Since the digital music market is the way it is, I would favor the latter of those two options.

It looks as if Kazaa is possibly taking both routes with parent company Sharman Networks saying on its website it is “looking forward to collaborating with the music and motion picture companies to make P2P an integral part of the future of online digital entertainment.”

It could be the technology that has caused the music industry so many headaches becomes the very thing that forms the backbone of the legal digital music industry in the future.

USER COMMENTS 21 comment(s)

Damn(9:34am EST Mon Aug 07 2006)I've been slacking off on my downloading. Looks like now is the time to step it up. - by Downloader

slimewire(10:10am EST Mon Aug 07 2006)the riaa is trying to prevent the inevitable. after years of legal battles they will shut down limwire only to find a new p2p file sharer to spring up in its place. I personally feel bad for all the people that use use limwire and expose their easily exposable windoze. - by slimeyman

oldwire(10:45am EST Mon Aug 07 2006)I have not used Limewire for a long time. I found it to slow. SO I switched to a new service. But there is already a number of services.. They will shut this down and another oen will be up within a couple of weeks.

- by get on the donkey

money the RIAA receives(11:07am EST Mon Aug 07 2006)I just hate to see all that money going back into the RIAA's coffers to fuel more lawsuits. :( - by chuckie

Slightly Pointless…(11:38am EST Mon Aug 07 2006)Since the lawsuit has started I have completely deleted everything on my computer about and/or associated with LimeWire. The only thing is, as others have said, there will probably be a new “LimeWire”- like program… or at least that's how it's been in the past. Currently there are many other programs of the like also being deactivated. Maybe they actually will destroy file-sharing as we know it… - by Eu_Dorinta

Strange(11:41am EST Mon Aug 07 2006)I just checked and there are 1,582,806 limewire downloads from d0wnl0ad.kom so far. They are responsible for providing/distributing a file that has a sole purpose of breaking the law?

Open your eyes RIAA.

BTW don't get on your high horse and tell me that there is a legitimate use for this program.

- by cut to the chase

Limewire will win(12:16pm EST Mon Aug 07 2006)I say this because they have a popup on the first time you try to download a file that does not contain any copyright information. This popup explains that you might be trying to download copyrighted information which is illegal. You can proceed from here by either stoping the download or continuing at your own risk. you can of course check a box to never see this popup again but you are still liable for reading this as with any EULA that does basically the same thing for software or media.

This is just passing the responsibility to the person downloading and WILL get them off in any court of law.

The RIAA is just grasping at straws and the only person getting rich is their legal team.

I dont use limewire anymore but I hope then win with this little popup they added. The RIAA is obsolete and finally musicians are realizing this and making music by themselves. - by asdfasdfasd

Use public libraries(1:31pm EST Mon Aug 07 2006)Public libraries can't and won't EVER be sued by RIAA because they are backed by the good ol state and US government who had veeeeeeery deep pockets too.

So head on down to your local public library and check out some CD's and DVD'S to burn/RIP —ER watch and listen too. - by Library patron

re:asdfasdfasd(2:01pm EST Mon Aug 07 2006)If that's true then they will have a sour taste in their mouth. - by lmao

zzzzzzzz(2:21pm EST Mon Aug 07 2006)BitTorrent 3 - by nwa

two words(2:42pm EST Mon Aug 07 2006)PeerGaurdian, won't that block ur IP address to government and the RIAA, so they can't sue you.

Does anyone else use PeerGaurdian, and are there any other programs avalable - by udntknomyIP

There are some IP block lists that block (2,873,000,000) I rounded IP's or like 67% of all the IP's

I just hope that Limewires little popup is good a legal like I think it would make it so the RIAA gets snakebit.

This will hopefully open the world up to P2P as a legitament source of file transfering for stuff like internet broadcasts of large sporting events so the bandwidth to the servers is not slammed and all watching can help each other watch and lower network loads. There is many other great ways to use p2p file sharing ideas and methods to help do good things.

- by adsfadsfasd

Reason…(6:42pm EST Mon Aug 07 2006)That they cannot track down the programmers is because its - by Open source

Why pirate?(11:41pm EST Mon Aug 07 2006)Netflix allows you to rent movies for about a buck a flick. We have FM and Internet radio for free. If you wait a few months after a video game release, you can acquire it used for next to nothing on eBay. The best software is no-cost free open source. - by Dreamcast

dosent matter(4:58am EST Tue Aug 08 2006)operations will just move to some obscure country where the U.S. Supreme Court means absolutly nothing.They cant win. - by Bitchin

where does the money go?(5:52am EST Wed Aug 09 2006)Hypothetical, if the RIAA wins this and gets say 150k per song, do the musicians get a cut of that? I mean when you buy a CD or song, certain percentages go to the musicians (depending on contracts). So where does the money go if the RIAA wins? Perhaps musicians should start suing the RIAA for not paying up their cut. - by Payout